Library hosts open house Thursday

The McGoogan Library of Medicine is celebrating the grand opening of the new AskUs@UNMC desk, and the entire campus is invited.

Join the library staff for cookies, photos and a student drawing at the open house, set for Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The library has undergone a facelift in the past several months. When entering, people will notice a new “one-stop shop” AskUs desk that combines reference and circulation, eliminating the need to refer students and faculty from desk to desk.

In addition, visitors can explore the expanded student computing area, the proposed location for a testing center, a new reading area for Consumer Health Information Resource Services (CHIRS) patrons, the eighth floor computer lab being renovated for the Faculty Development Center, and the new reserved student study carrels.

From Thursday through Nov. 20, UNMC students are invited to sign up for a drawing to help library staff test out the new study carrel area. Located on the seventh floor, the private carrels will have lockable filing cabinets where students can store their research while working on their dissertation or other research. Students will help test by using the carrels and lockable cabinets through Dec. 20 and reporting to library staff on positives and negatives. The carrels will be accessible during library hours, most days from 7:30 a.m. to midnight. (Closed only to remind students that they should sleep sometime!) The drawing will be held on Nov. 21 at 10 a.m. In the future, carrels will check out for a full semester.

Also available during the open house, librarians will demonstrate the new mobile tablet app BrowZine. You can check out BrowZine, along with other mobile resources such as UpToDate, at a booth on the third floor of Wittson Hall.